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Meta’s plunge and Amazon’s massive ad business, by the numbers: Datacenter Weekly
Plus, where the heat is in social video, Tom Brady’s Insta retirement stats, macroeconomic news in a nutshell, and more
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Bloomberg LP
$232 billion
That’s how much Facebook parent Meta’s market cap dropped on Thursday—“the biggest one-day decline for a stock in U.S. history,” as The Wall Street Journal notes.
Essential context: “What Meta and Google earnings reveal about Apple’s data crackdown,” from Ad Age’s Garett Sloane.
Previously: “Meta’s ad business clashing with Apple, TikTok,” also from Ad Age’s Garett Sloane.
Even more context: “Meta’s miss creates Big Tech divide: who’s got the data,” from Reuters.
See also: “Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth just fell almost $30 billion in one day—the second-biggest drop ever,” per CNBC.
Meanwhile: “Snap, Pinterest dispel Facebook-fueled fears with strong quarters,” per Bloomberg News (via Ad Age).
Amazon’s massive ad business
Amazon's ad revenue was $9.7 billion in the fourth quarter, “a 32% increase from a year earlier,” the company revealed on Thursday, Bloomberg News reports (via Ad Age). “It was the first time the company disclosed advertising as a separate line item. Previously it was part of the ‘other’ revenue category.”
Essential context: CNBC’s Jordan Novet notes that ad business “is still small by Amazon standards, representing 7% of total revenue in the fourth quarter.”
Tom Brady, retiree
A few stats regarding Tom Brady’s official retirement statement on Instagram, shared with Datacenter Weekly by influencer marketing platform CreatorIQ:
• The 4.3 million likes the post has garnered in three days represent a 1,500% increase over his rolling 90-day average of 260.8K likes per post. (Brady has 11.2 million followers on Instagram.)
• The post also received more than 159,000 comments, which represent a 3,700% increase over his 90-day comment average.
See also: “Top 12 Tom Brady commercials in wake of his NFL retirement,” from Ad Age’s Parker Herren.
The latest ad industry employment data
“Employment in advertising, public relations and related services dropped by 5,900 jobs in January,” Ad Age Datacenter’s Bradley Johnson reports, citing data from the just-released monthly employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Essential context: “The January decline, based on figures that are not seasonally adjusted, should not be a concern. Ad jobs have fallen every January since 2000, according to Ad Age Datacenter’s analysis of BLS data. Last month’s drop actually was the smallest January decline since 2016.”
Keep reading here for Johnson’s drill-downs (complete with charts) on ad industry employment by various BLS subcategories, including ad agencies.
Previously: “U.S. advertising employment increased by 2,300 jobs in December,” from Ad Age Datacenter.
Macroeconomic news and data in a nutshell
• “Weekly jobless claims total 238,000, fewer than expected,” per CNBC.
• “Interest rates may have to rise sharply to fight inflation,” from The Economist.
• “A Normal Supply Chain? It’s ‘Unlikely’ in 2022,” The New York Times reports.
• Global container flows struggle to pick up speed, data shows,” Reuters reports.
Tubular
Video analytics firm Tubular Labs is out with new data showing just where the heat is in social video. Specifically:
• Consumption of fashion-related video content on YouTube and Facebook is up 40% year-over-year (2021 vs. 2020).
• Consumption of beauty-related video content on YouTube and Facebook is up 58% year-over-year.
• Consumption of food-and-beverage-related video content on YouTube and Facebook is up 94% year-over-year.
Essential context: Tubular dropped those stats this week tied to the official launch of Tubular Consumer Insights, a new analytics capability that lets publishing and marketer clients figure out what kind of effect certain video content has on consumer shopping behavior on Amazon. Tubular serves as the data supplier for the Global Video Measurement Alliance, which includes Group Nine, Discovery, Digitas, ViacomCBS, BuzzFeed and other major players (as well as Tubular itself).
Publicis rebounds
“Publicis Groupe turned in a strong 2021, including a 10% jump in organic revenue, and has plans to invest significantly more in data and tech acquisitions in 2022,” Ad Age’s Alexandra Jardine reports.
Essential context: “As the first of the major agency holding companies to report its full-year 2021 results, Publicis appears to have rebounded strongly from the pandemic. Revenue rose 8% to 10,487 million euros last year. Organic revenue, which strips out the impact of acquisitions, divestitures and currency fluctuations, rose 10% from 2020 and was 3% ahead of 2019's pre-pandemic performance.”
Just briefly
• “Google ad surge fueled by retailers like Walmart and Warby Parker,” from Ad Age.
• “What Zillow’s failed algorithm means for the future of data science,” from Fortune.
• “The Beijing Olympics Could Be a Data Security Mess,” from Bloomberg News.
• “NBCU Puts iSpot in Lead as It Evaluates Measurement Companies,” per Broadcasting & Cable.
• “Pentagon’s new data and AI office hits IOC milestone, gets $500M budget,” Breaking Defense reports.
• “European ad group hit with ‘harsh sanctions’ over privacy lapses,” from Bloomberg News (via Ad Age).
The newsletter is brought to you by Ad Age Datacenter, the industry’s most authoritative source of competitive intel and home to the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers, the Ad Age Agency Report: World’s Biggest Agency Companies and other exclusive data-driven reports. Access or subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter at AdAge.com/Datacenter.
Ad Age Datacenter is Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Catherine Wolf.
This week’s newsletter was compiled and written by Simon Dumenco.
